Euphoria and symposia : the dialectic of desire in thinking, drinking, and well-being / Kieran Bonner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bonner, Kieran, 1951- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Drinking of alcoholic beverages--Philosophy--Case studies.

Drinking of alcoholic beverages.

Drinking of alcoholic beverages--Psychological aspects--Case studies.

Drinking of alcoholic beverages--Health aspects--Case studies.

Drinking of alcoholic beverages--Social aspects--Case studies.

Desire--Case studies.

Desire.

Well-being--Case studies.

Well-being.

Elation--Case studies.

Elation.

Drinking customs.

Symposium (Classical Greek drinking party).

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xii, 348 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Montreal, QC ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago: McGill-Queen's University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"Euphoria and Symposia explores the relationship between euphoria, desire, and well-being in the human practices of drinking and thinking, both phenomena in which seeking more - more alcohol, more knowledge - can be understood, ambiguously, as simultaneously positive and negative. Drinking leads to both euphoria and depression and is potentially destabilizing for both the individual and the collective. While medical science understands it is risky for our health (dependency, addiction, illness), anthropology sees drinking as contributing to communal celebration (euphoria, sociability). Since health and celebration are both desirable goods, Kieran Bonner suggests that it is this balancing act - our desire for what is better and good, our preference for one thing over another - that creates ambiguity, revealing a grey zone that is fundamental to a fuller understanding of well-being. In a series of case studies, revealing intricacies and ambiguities not usually picked up in typical scientific, philosophical, or sociological discourses, Bonner posits well-being as harmony, requiring nuanced judgments about the various things that humans desire, including wealth, health, beauty, power, vitality, leisure, pleasure, love, and wisdom. Informed by a creative synthesis of Socratic interrogation, hermeneutic perspectives drawn from post-phenomenological thinkers such as Gadamer and Arendt, and distinctive perspectives found in the tradition of reflexive sociology, Euphoria and Symposia asserts that reconciling unlimited desire with the finite nature of the human condition is essential for the understanding and enjoyment of life itself."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Drinking Discourses and Grey Zone of Well-Being

Desire for Pleasure: The Educational Effect of Drinking Parties and Drunkenness

Desire for Progress: The American Prohibition Experiment

"Desire, Use, Repeat": Addiction and AA

Willing and Divided Desire: Truth and Self-Awareness through AA

Desire for Good Company: Inebriation, Health, Well-Being

Desire and Euphoria: Drinking, Thinking, and Thoughtlessness

Desire to Learn, Self-Development, Repeat

Desire and Ironic Inebriation: Thinking, Drinking, and Madness (Plato's Symposium)

Desire for Wisdom: Lovers, Madness, and Addiction

Human Flourishing: A Modest Proposal.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Bonner, Kieran, 1951- Euphoria and symposia.

ISBN:

9780228024620

0228024625

OCLC:

1467869882

Publisher Number:

90102216769

CIPO000239926